This design for a Holocaust memorial to be installed on the grounds of Ohio Statehouse, submitted by world-renown architect Daniel Libeskind, may have hit a snag. Libeskind also designed the master plan for the World Trade Center site in New York.Courtesy of Studio Daniel Libeskind

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The plan for a Holocaust memorial at the Ohio Statehouse took a big step forward last week when the Artist Selection Committee chose a proposal by Daniel Libeskind, the world-renown architect who designed the Jewish Museum in Berlin and the master plan for the World Trade Center site in New York.

But the Statehouse plan may have taken two steps back, too.

Former Ohio Sen. Richard Finan, now chairman of the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board and a skeptic of the project from the beginning, once again raised objections. This time Finan expressed concerns about Libeskind's design, particularly its use of the six-sided Star of David, the symbol of Judaism.

Finan, who served as president of the Senate from 1997 to 2003, says he'll bring those concerns to two other committees before they take final votes at meetings scheduled for May and July.

"I think that the Star of David is a religious symbol and religious symbols, we have been told on several occasions, are not permissible on Statehouse grounds," Finan said in a telephone interview last week.

The state, he points out, fought a years-long legal battle beginning in the late 1990s after then-Gov. George Voinovich proposed that the Ohio seal be engraved at the Statehouse. The seal includes the state motto: "With God, All Things Are Possible."

The American Civil Liberties Union sued and the resulting legal action, Finan recalls, cost the state between $200,000 and $250,000.

"That made us gun shy," said Finan, who since the early 1990s has been responsible for restoration and upkeep of the Greek revival capitol, completed in 1861, and the tree-shaded lawn, pathways and flower gardens that surround it.

Legal action, Finan contends, could not only be costly, but could greatly slow the process.

"This one could go all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States," said Finan, who was one of three members of the Artist Selection Committee to vote for other designs. Twelve others voted for Libeskind's design.

A spokesman for the ACLU said it's too early to tell if a Star of David in the memorial would lead to a lawsuit.

"These cases are complex," said Nick Worner, with the ACLU of Ohio. "They depend on context and facts that we don't yet have."

But Finan has other objections, too.

"My concern in the beginning –- and it still is -- is the appropriateness of having a Holocaust memorial on the Statehouse grounds," he said.

"Our memorials that are on the Statehouse grounds are soldiers, presidents, these are our jewels, things that are related to the Civil War and that era, with the exception of Veterans Plaza. That honors veterans from the Second World War to the present time."

If the Holocaust memorial is allowed, Finan worries the state will allow all kinds of requests from other groups.

"A lot of people come to us to put monuments on the Statehouse grounds – the Mormon church, for example. The African-American community came to us about General Benjamin Davis. There was a Polish Revolutionary War general that was presented to us, also."

And, Finan says, the design was supposed to honor not only victims of the Holocaust but the soldiers who liberated them.

Nothing in the design, he says, references those liberators.

But others involved in plans for the memorial, say Finan's wrong on that point.

A walkway leading to the memorial's focal point, says Julie Henahan, executive director of the Ohio Arts Council and a nonvoting member of the Artist Selection Committee, includes a low wall with the inscription "In honor of the Ohio survivors and liberators."

"If you save one life, it is as if you saved the world," the inscription continues.

"It's clearly a reference to and recognizing the liberators," Henahan said.

She and others praise not only Libeskind's proposal but his willingness to adjust it.

"If there's a need to work with the architect/artist on some refinement that will get the piece even closer to the intended mission, clearly Mr. Libeskind made that offer," Henahan said. "He certainly expressed his willingness to work on refinements."

Joyce Garver Keller, executive director of Ohio Jewish Communities, which has been working closely with Gov. John Kasich on the project, called the design magnificent.

"It's disappointing that Senator Finan has really expressed concern about this project since the day the governor announced his interest in moving forward. But you know a super majority of the members of the committee voted to accept Libeskind's proposal and they were very supportive of it."

Finan began expressing concern about the memorial shortly after Kasich announced support for it in an impassioned Statehouse speech to about 100 people at a Holocaust commemoration in 2011.

Kasich called on the Jewish community that day to commit to building a Holocaust memorial at the Statehouse that would teach people about man's inhumanity to man so that lawmakers and the public "will be able to understand not just the history of a time when people wouldn't stand, but the fact that it's today we must stand against evil."

About a year later, Finan criticized Kasich for inserting a proposal for the memorial into the state budget instead of taking it to Finan's advisory board for approval.

"All one has to do now is go to the governor and say 'I want a statue of Donald Duck on the Statehouse grounds,' and if he gets convinced of it, boom!," Finan told the Ohio Finance Committee last year.

What happens next rests with the Holocaust Memorial Site Selection Committee, which plans to meet before the end of May, and the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board, scheduled to meet on July 18. Both must approve a design before construction can begin.

Keller says she believes the plan will move forward and the $2 million memorial -- to be paid for with private donations while site preparation is funded by the state -- will open no later than the summer of 2014.

"Part of our push to get this done so quickly," she said, "was the average age of survivors and the average age of (liberating) soldiers. You're talking about people in their 80s and 90s.

"We would certainly like, when this is installed, that many people with personal connections would be able to come and be part of the installation."

To governor is hopeful, too, says his spokesman, Rob Nichols.

"The governor wants a memorial at the Statehouse to honor the victims of the Holocaust," Nichols said this week. "And we are confident that the advisory board will be able to do that appropriately."

But Henahan's not absolutely sure.

"I can't speculate," she said. "The senator has his concerns. I think the committee respects his concerns. I think we just need to proceed and hope we can stick with the established timeline.

Follow Us

cleveland.com is powered by Plain Dealer Publishing Co. and Northeast Ohio Media Group. All rights reserved (About Us).The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Northeast Ohio Media Group LLC.